The story behind Espargaro's 'stunt double' retirement surprise

You were probably surprised to see two Aleix Espargaros on track at the end of MotoGP’s Solidarity Grand Prix sprint.

So was Espargaro.

On his in-lap after finishing fourth, Espargaro - who retires from full-time racing after this weekend - was greeted by the 125cc Seedorf Racing Honda RS125 that he rode in his first grand prix season in 2005 (pictured above), with a mystery rider dressed in his leathers taking over his 2024 Aprilia so he could ride the RS125 home.

That ‘stunt double’ was Aprilia’s track analyst Matteo Baiocco, who told The Race the full story behind the gesture.

The idea in large part came from Espargaro’s wife Laura, his rider assistant Robert Galan and his friend and former Moto2 rival Ricky Cardus, who enlisted Baiocco to help due to both his experience as a test rider on the Aprilia RS-GP and because he already had a set of Espargaro-replica leathers and helmet after some filming work for Aprilia earlier this year.

“It was amazing,” gushed Espargaro.

“I love my wife a lot. I never imagined this surprise. I can’t imagine a better way to end my career than doing a lap with my first bike of the world championship and with my current bike. It was a brilliant idea.”

Baiocco and the others also had to factor in the potential for Espargaro’s best friend Jorge Martin to win the 2024 MotoGP title on Saturday, and they agreed that they would deliver the surprise only if Martin didn’t win the championship. It went off without a hitch and left Espargaro shocked.

“The idea that Robert and Ricky had was to give him a parade lap with the first and the last bike that he rode in his career,” Baiocco told The Race.

“There was a problem how to bring the MotoGP bike to the pit box, but everything became perfect!

“I also had to be the actor for Aleix in a movie, so I had the helmet and the leathers and everything already ready. So they said to me ‘why don’t you jump on the bike? Sometimes you ride our MotoGP bike and you can do it.’

“So we arranged that, and I was waiting inside the truck ready, but with the fingers crossed because I am very confident about the luck!

“He didn’t know anything, nothing before meeting us on track, and he was very happy when we rode the bike together. I could see him smiling, watching me a lot on his bike.”

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While it all went to plan, Baiocco admitted that he had to be extra careful on the lap as he tried to enjoy the moment, in case he damaged Espargaro’s bike ahead of his final race on Sunday.

“We went very slowly in front of the crowd,” he added, “and they enjoyed a lot to see both bikes, and also because Aleix made some noise with the bike in front of everyone.

“But we had to not stop, because Aleix has a very good engine this weekend and the temperature is very important so I couldn’t go too slow. 

“I was very scared on this in-lap to not make a problem with the bike!”